Local Newswire Great job, Milwaukee! Outside magazine includes Milwaukee among “best river towns in America”

It’s funny that for all the attempts to reinvent Milwaukee as a Midwest cultural and/or technological powerhouse, the one thing the city has truly excelled at has been under its nose all along: water. That fun fact hasn’t been lost on the editors and readers of Outside magazine, who have included Milwaukee in their list of “The Best River Towns in America.” Outside notes that “more than 130 water-technology companies—such as PaveDrain, which created a permeable paving system to help reduce runoff, and Aquarius Systems, which designs river skimmers and other surface-water cleaning products—now call the city home,” and that former governor Tommy Thompson has expressed his hopes that Milwaukee will be “the Silicon Valley of water.” Then there’s the city’s “10 miles of streams, 85 lakes, and three rivers,” not to mention UWM’s School of Freshwater Sciences.

Of course, any national mention of Milwaukee isn’t complete without a nod to our supposed inferiority complex (“People underestimate Milwaukee,” says reader Nancy Welch.”), and beer, beer, and beer. Outside does go the extra mile, however, by including the “Best Endorsement From A German” (“I feel very comfortable with the German heritage in the Milwaukee area!”) Those minor quibbles aside: Great job, Milwaukee!